A witty, keenly observant look at our Internet-obsessed culture

Anna Krestler is adrift. The Internet has draped itself, kudzu-like, over her brain, which makes it even more difficult to confront the question of what to do when she is dismissed from her job as a cubicle serf at a midtown law firm. Despite the exhortations of Leslie, her friend and volunteer life coach, Anna seeks refuge in the back alleys of craigslist, where she connects with Taj, an adherent of a nebulous movement known as Nowism that occupies the most self-absorbed fringes of the art world.

“Simone’s is a wisecracking, mordantly observant, wide-awake voice. Even when the humor is bitter, there’s something joyful in it–like hearing a direct dispatch from a neurotic person’s consciousness.” —Karen Russell, O Magazine

The flavors of the book are sharp and sour, like a Chinese soup, and Alina Simone, a singer/songwriter, is clearly a novelist, too.” —Nick Hornby, The Believer

The Believer: Readers’ Favorite Top Ten Favorite Works of Fiction in 2013

“Simone’s narrative uses anomie as a cohering structure, which is to say that this novel deals in what’s out there nowadays: our handheld devices, our fragmented attention spans, our universal desire to go public… At one point, Anna comes up with the idea that the opposite of pop culture is unpopular culture. Note to Self is neither. It’s fine art.” David Galen, The Yale Review

All the things you want in a coming-of-age story.” — Jen Vafidis, The Daily Beast

Note to Self is smart, zany and sadly true about all that’s truly sad about the state of human cognition in the digital age. Alina Simone has an extraordinary ear for the frenetic cadence and petty concerns of our times. She also has the heart and brains to point the way toward something more transcendent. I smiled, nodded, and shook my head in recognition all the way through.”— Meghan Daum, author of Life Would Be Perfect If I Lived in That House

Note to Self deftly dissects our Internet addiction, trawling the shallows of the 21st-century noncommittal mind in an engrossing story that both entertains and provokes. Alina Simone is a witty chronicler of our times.” — Teddy Wayne, author of The Love Song of Jonny Valentine

“People as multi-talented and skilled as Alina Simone, who sings beautifully, writes essays, and now foists upon us a truly funny and poignant novel, need to be stopped. And maybe they will be, but in the meantime, there is no harm in falling into the soulful voice of Simone’s narrator, Anna, as she struggles with the end of numb, cubicled youth and the awkward beginnings of new life.”— Sam Lipsyte, author of The Fun Parts

Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013